Chambers Shines with Second World Title in Singapore

SINGAPORE – Team USA closed out day three of the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships in commanding fashion, earning five more podium finishes at the OCBC Aquatic Center. The highlight of the night came from Paralympic champion Olivia Chambers (Little Rock, Arkansas), who captured her first international gold medal in a 100-meter event.

Chambers powered to her second straight world title, striking gold in the women’s 100m freestyle S13 against a stacked field that featured two fellow Americans. Grace Nuhfer (Greenwood, Indiana) added to Team USA’s medal haul with bronze, while Paralympic champion Gia Pergolini (Atlanta, Georgia) finished just two-hundredths of a second shy of the podium for the fourth-fastest time in the world.

“Honestly it’s just crazy, I wouldn’t consider myself a sprinter really, so I’ve really just been embracing that and trying to get some more speed,” said Chambers. “It’s always exciting to get out there with Gia and Grace and to just have a great race.”

“I knew coming into worlds that this race was going to be a close one and after this morning knew that I hit the gas really early on [in prelims] so I wanted to be a little stronger with my pull going out and hit it home that last 50.”

Fresh off her double podium debut, Katie Kubiak (Mequon, Wisconsin) returned to the pool for two events, including racing a class above her own in the women's 50m butterfly S5. In doing so, Kubiak added a silver to her collection in world record fashion cementing a time of :39.34 in the history books for the S4 classification.

“I never expected to set a world record at this meet,” said Kubiak. “To touch the wall and turn around to see the world record pop up on the scoreboard was incredible and I’m just so proud that I was able to set it in the venue while representing Team USA.”

“I was one of the only S4 athletes in that heat so it’s always a little intimidating to be at the disadvantage of being a class down. I think it really lit a fire under me to want to do my best and that really showed in the water.”

Koehn Boyd (Ramsey, Minnesota) captured his second consecutive silver medal of the competition with a standout performance in the men’s 400m freestyle S10. After qualifying first out of the preliminary heats, Boyd delivered another strong swim in one of the evening’s most tightly contested races.

“Wow, that was such a fun race and great competition,” said Boyd. “I’m just glad I could bring home another medal for Team USA.”

Three of the four bronze medalists from the United States’ first relay race returned to the world stage for the 4x50 medley relay 20 pts where they added a new racer, Morgan Ray (St. Augustine, Florida), to the lineup and a second relay bronze for Team USA. Ray joined last night’s group which included Kubiak, Adin Williams (Happy Valley, Oregon) and Leanne Smith (Salem, Massachusetts) to pick up his first medal of the championships.  

Three American swimmers narrowly missed the podium with fourth-place finishes, including Taylor Winnett (Hershey, Pennsylvania) in the women’s 400m freestyle S10, 18-time Paralympic champion Jessica Long (Baltimore, Maryland) in the women’s 100m butterfly S8, and two-time Paralympic medalist Noah Jaffe (Carlsbad, California) in the men’s 100m butterfly S8.

The fourth day of competition will begin at 9 a.m. GMT+8 with finals starting at 5:30 p.m. local time. A livestream is available to view at www.youtube.com/paralympics. For more information on U.S. Paralympics Swimming, visit usparaswimming.org.  

For photo or media inquiries, contact Annemarie.Blanco@usopc.org.

Team USA Results: 

Olivia Chambers, gold, women’s 100m freestyle S13

Koehn Boyd, silver, men’s 400m freestyle S10

Katie Kubiak, silver, women’s 50m butterfly S5 and world record in women’s 50m butterfly S4

Grace Nuhfer, bronze, women’s 100m freestyle S13

Katie Kubiak, Morgan Ray, Leanne Smith and Adin Williams, bronze, 4x50 medley relay 20 pts 

Other finishes: 

Noah Jaffe, 4th, men’s 100m butterfly S8

Jessica Long, 4th, women’s 100m butterfly S8

Gia Pergolini, 4th, women’s 100m freestyle S13

Taylor Winnett, 4th, women’s 400m freestyle S10